Empty Tables
by TakeOverWorld
Summary: It's difficult to be a pilot on the front lines. But sometimes it's harder to be one sat on the side lines; a tech, a builder, or even a dinner lady.


When Lily died Kitty stole the hair pin she used to wear. Lily was lying there, crushed under the wreckage of the fallen skyscraper. Her face was twisted to the side, the bloody mess obscured by her inky black hair. The hairpin had slid down, her face was no more, it was just a black hole with a butterfly hairpin for a centre piece. She didn't exist anymore and Kitty was struck by how lonely the butterfly looked. Lily's vanishing voice whispered in her ear and her two ghostly hands clasped Kitty's as Lily said, _the butterfly cannot fly if I weigh it down, take it_. So Kitty did.

Are you okay? Someone asked. They might as well have been talking through a haze. As Kitty blinked at them, the taller one stepped forward.  
I think she's gone into shock, another one supposed. Blanket.  
And one was placed over her shoulders. The sudden weight was shocking. She stumbled, the gravel surged towards her, hands under her armpits, steady, she was fine.  
"You okay? Were you hit anywhere?"  
Kitty had thought back on that moment many times and come to realise that she responded that way because she was a bit of an arse.  
"Yes."  
"...You were hit?" The person wondered, frowning. Blinking further she discovered that it was a he, dressed in civilian clothing. Unlike her, his clothes were mostly clean, where as hers were the standard beige of Destroyed City style.  
"No."  
The world began to expand again, people stumbled out of damaged buildings, calling for survivors, sharp eyed so and so's digging valuables out, men and women in overalls armed with brooms and bins. In short, the cleanup was beginning.  
The tall man walked off, his companion; a dumpy woman, peered around Kitty. Her face sank; she'd noticed the dead body. But it wasn't enough. No one would ever look sad enough that she'd passed away.  
That day, Kitty slipped away, climbing up the stairs of a mostly intact building until she stood on the roof. The smoking city looked up at her. In the distance the carcass of that great beast lay, legs splayed, arms splayed, as though it were trying to bring everything down with it. Helicopters buzzed around the dead Kaiju, and heavy clouds hung low in the sky. Kitty sunk to the floor, twirling the pin idly in her hands as the city fixed itself without her.

*##

Kitty had never been particularly clever. Never been athletic or even good with people. Not even particularly ambitious or self-motivated or any of those words that look good on a CV. In a way, she found the perfect job.  
"Mac cheese?" She asked for the thousandth time. The tired looking guy shook his head and moved on.  
"Mac cheese?" She asked once more.  
"Yeah, thanks." Raleigh Becket was now standing on the other side of the trolley. One plus side of the job, working at the Shatterdome; You got to meet celebrities, if only to serve them food. One downside, you had to serve a lot of food and it got boring quickly. As she stood there, she imagined what she'd do if she was a stereotypical dinner lady. She'd be fat, forty with a mole on her face and she'd smack down a bigger portion on his plate, winking. She'd say "_A bigger portion for my favourite pilot_." and he'd laugh and go off. Unfortunately, Kitty was not everyone's favourite version of a dinner lady. She was thin, twenty and bored. Raleigh's brother was next in line and for that reason she spooned out the smallest portion so far, plopping it right at the edge of his plate. A couple of pieces of pasta dropped onto his tray. He frowned at her, but said nothing and moved along.  
"Mac cheese?" Kitty said to Yancy Becket. He nodded with a smile and because Raleigh was just one space along getting greens, she gave Yancy the biggest portion so far and in the right section of the plate. The younger Becket doubled back.  
"Hey, how come you gave the old guy a bigger serving?"  
"Aw, does the growing boy need more food?" Yancy teased.

"What can I say?" Kitty shrugged. Then, purely because the line was still long and she needed something to chuckle over. "I guess I just like his face."

Yancy burst into a laugh, and before Raleigh had a chance to respond, the sharp faced dinner lady serving the greens ordered them to move along. More mouths to feed after all.

*##

Kitchen shift over, she pulled off the hair net and apron, jamming them into her locker, ready and waiting for the next shift. It was her break now. Well, technically she had to start cleaning down the tables, but that could wait a bit. She left the kitchen, stretching, then sat down on a table in the emptying mess hall. She'd just sat down when a loud siren started to sound. With it, the dome shattered into a frenzy of new activity. Tech guys on break abandoned coffee cups, taking to their station once again. The pilots rushed to get suited up whilst the engineers readied the equipment. Everyone was busy, with work to do. Kitty felt the familiar jolt in her stomach that accompanied a Kaiju attack. The need to hide. Only when she looked down did she realise that she had a death grip on the table. She bit back a laugh, without that she'd have been hiding under the table until the all clear was given_. It'll be alright_, she thought, _this building with all of its fancy metal work will be just as safe, if not safer than one of the other shelters in the city. And less cramped._ As it was, the mess hall was now empty, save for her and some other kitchen staff. Unintentionally, she caught the eye of one of them, a middle aged woman called Rina.  
"Ooh, it's still hard to believe, isn't it, dearie." Rina called over to her, melancholy laced in her voice. Lost, Kitty just nodded. "Ah, when the first beast attacked, my little Ricardo, he wasn't so lucky." Rina toddled over, her face weighed down with age and loss. It echoed the dowdy woman's face from two years ago and all of a sudden, Kitty felt very uncomfortable. She looked down at the table. Vacantly she traced the whorls with a finger. Rina took this as an invitation for confidence.  
"That's why my older boy, Eduardo, he signed up to the academy. He wanted to be a pilot, help out." The older women looked up. She wasn't really talking to Kitty, she just needed to talk, because when she talked, they were back, they were there with their messy hair and big brown eyes. "He never got the chance. Was crushed by falling debris, trying to get people out of the building alive." All of a sudden it was all too familiar. Kitty couldn't breathe, she was covered in dust, the city was falling, the Kaiju was falling, the beautiful woman with the ink black hair was broken gone forever the butterfly so very lonely -  
She jolted to her feet.  
"I'm sorry; the world sounds worse for losing them." The words were wooden, but she didn't see Rina's reaction. She spent the next hour cleaning the mess hall because when you can see the ceiling reflected in the tables, the world is a whole lot smaller.

*##

The Kaiju had been defeated, the story played over and over on the news, complete with amateur footage of the dying moments of the alien. This one looked a bit like a gorilla fish thing, on like, steroids or something. Well, Kitty had never been much of a poet. She had been on her break when the heroes of the day returned, so she stood in the crowd and greeted them with jubilant cheers. These were a team of cousins, two ugly kids who'd never dreamt they'd receive a reception like this. Tired, but still buzzing from the kill, they set out to party with the rest of the squad. Everyone knew there wouldn't be another Kaiju attack for a while; it was the perfect time to put your feet up. The kitchen team even put out the biscuits from this morning, though they were drying out quickly. Kitty stood up on her tiptoes to try to find anyone she knew. It seemed most people were crowded around the pilots; they might as well have been glowing. Good for them.  
"Hey, it's the kitchen girl." Someone said from her left. She looked up, to see a handsome man with blue eyes. Yancy Becket. He gave her a friendly smile. "Hi."  
"Hey, it's that Ranger guy." Kitty grinned, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Kitchen girl was better than dinner lady at any rate. Trying her best to be nonchalant, she glanced around the hall. Why was he talking to her? Didn't he have more interesting people who to talk to? She hoped he hadn't taken that comment about his face seriously.  
"I'm -"  
"Yancy Beckett, yeah, everyone knows that around here. Didn't you want to congratulate the pilots?"  
"I already did. They've got plenty more people to congratulate them over there. "  
Kitty nodded vacantly. Her palms were sweating. Bloody hell. Did she need a serving tray in front of her to talk normally?  
"You want a cookie? I'll show you which ones are fresh."  
He laughed.  
"Sure." They set off through the crowd to the table where the tray of cookies was laid out, her leading the way. "Can I get your name as well?" With these words Kitty's face twisted in a frown. She hated introducing herself, after all what kind of name was Kitty? It was a name only suitable for a cat, small child or a prostitute. Not a twenty year old dinner lady.  
With a sigh, she said, "It's Kitty Corra." Reaching the plate, she pointed. "The cookies at the edge, those were only baked an hour ago."  
"Nice to meet you, Kitty." And she always found it weird, no matter who said it, when they called her Kitty completely seriously.  
"Uh huh." Wow, Kitty. Great conversational skills. She was standing next to a Ranger and she couldn't think of much to say. Ah.  
"Does it annoy you?" She blurted out suddenly. Confused, Yancy frowned. He opened his mouth to speak when Raleigh interrupted.  
"Yancy!" The young man called, making his way towards his brother. "Did you see the fight? That Kaiju was brutal."  
"Yeah, nearly tore that Jaeger in half."  
Noticing Kitty, Raleigh blinked.  
"Hey, it's you." He said. "What's your name? I'll go tell your manager you hate me. "  
"So why would I tell you my name?"  
"Bet you told Yancy. Trying to get with the old guy?" Raleigh joked, elbowing his brother, who was shaking his head. A spattering of pink began to rise on Kitty's cheeks.  
"Rals - "  
"What can I say; he's not trying to get me fired." The words slipped out and Kitty wondered if she was being way too rude. These guys helped protect cities, putting their lives on the line and she served mac cheese and cleaned the floors. Luckily, he responded with a well humoured laugh, as a male she hadn't seen before approached the two guys, talking so quickly that Kitty barely understood. It sounded technical, and so she took that as her cue to leave. She left the hall, but the party continued on into the night, the hall ringing with the sound of people who were happy to forget about the incoming apocalypse for one more night.

AN/: So this is the end of the chapter. :) I loved the movie and really wanted to write a fic with it. Hopefully it was fun enough to read, Kitty's not a Mary Sue and the characters are In Character. Thanks for reading, drop a review if you like it, and if you didn't like it. Stay tuned for the next chapter, ha /


End file.
